


Osmosis

by mackenziebutterschnapps (hannibalsbattlebot)



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 20:05:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3542171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannibalsbattlebot/pseuds/mackenziebutterschnapps
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During one of his lost-time episodes, Will walks in on murder in progress and the Ripper decides its the perfect time to teach him a little lesson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Osmosis

Jack walked Will out to the field. Even without his guidance, Will would have known where to go. The energy of the place was drawing him.

"We need to know if this is the Ripper or not," Jack said.

They stopped in front of the scene. Not even the agents and police milling around could obscure the design of the tableau. Will circled it slowly, taking in the details. The man was splayed out and pinned to the ground with metal bars at the feet and hands, other bars holding open the flaps of skin that had once covered his ribs and intestines.

Jimmy Price saw Will and Jack approach and started giving them run-down "Male victim, abdomen has been sliced open, as has the throat with some removal of organs apparent."

"What about these bars?" Will asked.

Beverly carefully slid one out of the victim's hand and showed it to them. "Its about two feet long and sharp. Some kind of stake?"

"There's no tearing at the insertion sites," Brian said. "So he wasn't struggling. The stakes weren't used to hold him down."

"They are part of the message," Will said. "The killer rendered him immobile or unconscious before inserting the rods."

“That was nice of him,” Brian said.

“I didn’t say he couldn’t feel pain,” Will said.

"There's no ligature marks," Jimmy said.

"Was the victim drugged?" Jack asked.

"Its possible," Will said.

"Put a rush on a tox screen!" Jack said to the group at large, then turned back to Will. "What else can you tell me?"

"If these stakes weren't practical then they have symbolic meaning."

"A kind of crucifixion?" Jack hazarded.

"This scene is horizontal, not vertical.  And the legs are wrong. It isn’t cruciform. If this was a crucifixion the legs would be together, not pinned wide apart."

"Jack, you should come see this," Brian said from his place beside the body.

"So, typical Ripper down here," Brian said, indicating the open abdomen. "Surgically removed liver. But then down here, the pancreas is just a mess. He left part of it behind. Maybe he was interrupted?"

"Then here," Jimmy said pointing to the throat. "The cut is jagged, almost like he started to cut and then got impatient and just ripped the throat open. The trachea has been removed, but left behind. Its just been tossed over there."

"Its not like the Ripper to be so sloppy," Will said. "When he leaves things at the scene he arranges it like an art instillation. No careless tossing or dropping of body parts."

“Maybe he’s in his postmodern phase,” Brian said.

"So you are saying this isn't the Ripper?" Jack asked, ignoring Brian.

Will shook his head. "I don't know yet."

Jack took a step back and gave Will some room.

 

Will closed his eyes, sending himself into the scene, rolling back time.

He saw sky.

He was on his back. He could see but not move. He was the victim.

Will tried to redirect himself into the killer, but couldn't. The panic he felt as the victim was real.

Observe, he told himself.

There were two figures over him, but it made no sense. He saw himself, Will Graham, holding the scalpel but he wasn't inside himself. He was watching himself from the outside. The other him looked pale and sweaty. Sick.

He felt dizzy and unmoored.  He wanted to take himself out of the scene, but he forced himself to stay and learn what he could about this murder. 

Behind the other Will Graham he could see a familiar shadow, black with branching antlers. Dark hands guided the hands he recognized as his own.

He felt the burn of the incision down the center of his body.

As the victim, Will screamed in his mind, but only muffled grunts came out of his paralyzed mouth. The Will Graham he could see passively yielded as the black taloned hands guided the cuts. He, as victim, could not hear anything, but he had the impression the black beast was whispering in the other Will's ear, instructing him, encouraging him.

The other him leaned over the victim. Will could see his other self had his eyes nearly closed and saliva pooling at the edge of his lip. In horror, he watched as a single drop fell unnoticed from his double's lip and landed on his cheek. He was powerless to move or wipe it away. It was wet on his face like a tear.

Will mustered up all his strength and again tried to yell. This time his lips parted and the noise came out as an animal bleat. The other Will flinched and hesitated at his work. Will the victim felt the beast's hands on his throat. He had made the stag man angry by trying to yell. The stag man took the scalpel from the other Will and slashed at his victim's throat. Will felt ripping and tearing, the air being stolen from him. The black emotionless face came up close to his and the stag man spoke.

Will expected a snake-like hissing or a dry rustling voice, something befitting a nightmare beast. The lips did not move, but the voice was clear, and, Will thought, familiar.

"Be quiet. You'll wake him."

Then the beast tore his throat out.

Will came back to himself, standing in the field. He was no longer that victim, but he felt the fear clinging to him.

"This isn't a crucifixion, it was a lesson," Will said to Jack, who had been patiently waiting nearby. "This is a dissection done in science class. The specimen has been flayed and pinned. The Ripper was trying to teach someone how to do what he does."

"The Ripper has a pupil?" Jack asked. "Are you sure?"

"It would explain the two different kinds of wounds."

" What is this student Ripper like?"

"I don't know," Will said. "It was confusing. I couldn't get in the killer's head and I don't know why."

"Well let's hope you figure out how to do it before the student learns his lessons," Jack said. "All the world needs now is two of them."

 

It had been cold out in the field. Like everyone else at the scene, Will had been bundled up in a hat, coat and gloves. Only when he got home that night and started to undress did he finally see the dark swathes of dried blood on his shirt and the thin brown-red crescents of blood under his fingernails.


End file.
